Yes, you heard right. Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes, new study finds. Only ONE a day!

I have a confession to make: I am a former diet coke addict. I used to drink diet coke, coke zero, and diet drinks EVERYDAY! I also used to sweeten my coffee with Splenda. I didn’t know about the dangers or artificial sweeteners.

I stopped consuming artificial sweeteners when I got pregnant for the first time, about 7 years ago. At one of my first prenatal visits, my doctor told me to limit the intake of diet soda. And I though to myself WHY? So, I looked into it and found out artificial sweeteners are really bad for our health.

After I had my son, I decided to never go back to artificial sweeteners again. It was hard at the beginning, because I was used to drinking diet coke everyday. I liked it. I actually LOVED it! But with time, I got used to drinking water instead. And now, I don’t crave it anymore. I was able to change the bad habit. Hurray!

Now I found another very POWERFUL REASON to AVOID drinking diet sodas.

It is so important to stay informed and learn about the dangers of processed foods. With information from reliable sources, you can make better choices for you and your family. This is how I changed my eating habits. Little by little (one ingredient at a time), you can switch to better and healthier ingredients.

Remember that we are what we eat. Staying away from artificial ingredients is the best for our health. Sugary drinks are bad, but diet drinks can even be more dangerous! Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes. Bad for our body and our brain too.

What we put in our bodies will definitely affect our health and our future health. I have seen the difference, and it is truly amazing! And if you want to detox from all the toxins and chemicals in your body, I highly recommend a good detox bath.

I have also great suggestion for drinking healthy drinks. If you don’t feel like drinking plain water always, please see my Detox Water recipes. They will also help you improve your digestive health.

Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes

Boston University researchers found aspartame, a low-calorie sweetener, wreaks havoc on the arteries – as opposed to sugar-sweetened drinks. This means drinking diet soda is far worse for your health than drinking regular soda sweetened with sugar.

The results showed that adults who had one or more diet drinks a day were 2.9 times more likely to develop dementia and 3 times more at risk of strokes compared to those who virtually had none at all.

The team of scientists from Boston University believe the artificial sweeteners including aspartame and saccharine may be affecting the blood vessels, eventually triggering strokes and dementia.

This new study involved data on 2,888 adults older than 45 and 1,484 adults older than 60 from the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The data came from the Framingham Heart Study, a project of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Boston University.

“Our study shows a need to put more research into this area given how often people drink artificially sweetened beverages,” said Matthew Pase, a senior research fellow in the department of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine and lead author of the new study.

“Although we did not find an association between stroke or dementia and the consumption of sugary drinks, this certainly does not mean they are a healthy option. We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages.”

Now, you have proof that Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes. Only one a day!

We already knew drinking sugary drinks was bad. Nutrition experts believe high levels of sugar contribute not just to rising levels of obesity, but also other health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, dental cavities and cancer.

The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) have great information about the devastating consequences of eating too much sugar. It is very important to Know Your Limit for Added Sugars.

So stay away from sweetened drinks (natural or artificial), all together and drink water. Your body and your brain will thank you.

I like to sweeten my desserts with natural sugars like maple syrup and honey. In my opinion, those are the best choices if you want to enjoy a sweet treat. If you are interested, please take a look at my 5 Sweet Treats You Don’t Have To Feel Guilty About post. I also make morning smoothies sweetened with coconut water and fruits. I try to stay away from refined sugars and artificial sweeteners as much as possible because I know how important it is for my family’s future health.

I hope you enjoyed reading this Drinking One Diet Drink A Day Can Triple Risk Of Dementia And Strokes article. If you are interested in reading more about my blog and want more healthy ideas for your family, please take a look at my latest articles.

I am a mom blogger who loves to share creative and healthy fun food ideas, family activities, DYIs, natural remedies, parenting advice, and tips for living a healthy lifestyle.

23 Responses so far.

First the article states artificial sweetener “wreaks havoc on the arteries”, then cites a study by Boston University. The problem is that study (which I read) says nothing about arterial damage. With no data to back this claim up, this is what one would call a lie. The author is giving false information.

Furthermore of the 4,372 test subjects, only 178 showed any signs of neurological issues. That comes out to only fractionally more than 4% of the subjects in the study developed neurological issues. Furthermore, while the study states adjustments were made for “age, sex, education (for analysis of dementia), caloric intake, diet quality, physical activity, and smoking” it does not list ethnicity, family history of neurological disease, or consumption of alcohol. Factually those with a family history of stroke, dementia, and alzheimers are vastly more likely to develop those diseases themselves, as compared to those who don’t have a family history, diet pop or not.

10.3 million is around 3% of the USA population. Note I haven’t taken into account the number of people who were 45+ years of age in 2013, which is data that would be far more challenging than our purposes here.

Four percent of study recipients. Honestly I like those odds. If I had a 96% of beating the house, you better believe I’d take that bet.

Conclusion: I strongly question the study that was made. It makes a correlation, but fails to establish causation. If I cared to take more time no doubt I would find numerous other studies that show no correlation whatsoever. The author claims this is “proof” that diet pop is going to give you neurological disease. In reality no concrete link has yet to be established. Given the percentages shown in the study results, my conclusion is feel free to drink all the diet pop you want. This article fails the burden of proof. Diet drinks continue to be a safe alternative to drinks sweetened with sugar and HFCS.

Don’t drink this crap! I have proof that Aspartame and Diet Soda’s are bad for your health. I have lost partial vision from optic neuritis in my left eye and lesions on my brain. It masks MS. Was tested for MS but was negative. Aspartame poisoning is the reasons for my condition. I drank one Diet Coke a day, and yes I suffer now from it. PLEASE DO NOT LISTEN TO THE COMMENT ABOVE TELLING YOU TO DRINK IT!

It clearly says in the study that it increases risk for cerebrovascular disease, which mean veins. Arteries are associated with heart disease, not strokes. You’re clearly not a physician. Diet coke is poison. Aspartame is poison.

sorry, but that last comment about strokes having to do with veins, not arteries, is incorrect. I am a physician, i know of what i speak. most strokes are ischemic in origin, meaning an artery is blocked, usually by either a blood clot that traveled from somewhere else in the body, or a piece of atherosclerotic plaque (a chunk of the hardening of the arteries stuff, mostly cholesterol but some other junk too) breaking off from, say, the carotid artery and lodging in a small artery. all tissue past that point of arterial blockage dies because there’s no blood flow past that point. a minor percentage of strokes are from ruptured blood vessels, again usually arteries and due to high blood pressure. brain tissue dies due to the direct pressure from the bleeding into the brain as well as the tissue past the rupture not receiving blood flow. hope this clears up any confusion about the pathophysiology of strokes (cerebrovascular accidents, cva’s). so yes, stroke falls under cardiovascular disease.

I tend to agree. Unfortunately when people in the media get ahold of these studies, they tend to disregard what the conclusion of the researchers actually is, either through not being trained to interpret a scientific article or a need for a “splashy” title. That is why there is so much misleading information out there.

You can’t really accept this one study as a definitive answer. First of all, because all of the people used lived in one areaa, there may have been environmental issues that caused the outcome. Secondly, there has to be a very long-term study to be able to say that diet soda is the cause. And the scientists “believe” that artificial sweeteners are the cause. That certainly diesnt mean much.

Just a suggestion. You might want to be more specific when talking about artificial sweeteners. The sugar alcohol sweeteners (which are sometimes described as artificial) such as xylitol, manitol, and erythritol, and stevia (which is actually a natural sweetener) do not have the same effects as sweeteners such as aspartame.

Both of my parents suffered from Dementia. My Dad had multi-infarct dementia from multiple small strokes and my mother has Alzheimer’s. As far as I remember I would say neither one of them ever had a diet soda in their life. There are so many factors that are involved in any disease, and except for studies that show a definite link between smoking and lung cancer, there aren’t any other direct links that I know of that links a specific disease with a specific activity. Everything in moderation. Heck, even too much water can kill a person.

I will be 92 years old in May … I do not drink diet soda; however, I DO drink iced tea daily. I sweeten it with one “blue” and one “yellow” packet of artificial sweetener. I am in excellent health (still bowl on a league every week), still drive my car everywhere. I have been using a computer since they first came out … my first one was an IBM PC-XT with a ten meg hard drive … I had a home based secretarial service in Stamford, Connecticut at that time. I read a couple of books per week, proofread/edit new novels for an author who is in Nevada (I am in Cincinnati, Ohio). I have never smoked and do not drink alcoholic beverages. I do not believe there is a problem, at least in my case, with using artificial sweeteners and shall continue to do so.